Concerned - Publication History

Publication History

The first issue of Concerned was released on May 1, 2005, the comic completing its run on November 6, 2006 with a total of 205 issues. The characters in the comic were posed using Garry's Mod, a tool which facilitates manipulation of the Source engine used by Half-Life 2, and the comic frames were assembled using Photoshop 6.

The webcomic derives its name from one of the propaganda broadcasts by Wallace Breen in Half-Life 2, in which he is reading a letter supposedly written by a citizen, signed 'Sincerely, a concerned citizen'. Throughout the comic the main character, Gordon Frohman, sends several similar letters to Dr. Breen, Livingston's intention being to suggest that Frohman was the author of the letter read by Breen in Half-Life 2. The name "Frohman" is derived from the last name of Gordon Freeman, the protagonist of the Half-Life series. According to the credits on the comic's website, this name was suggested to Livingston by Sam Golgert, an acquaintance of his.

Livingston has also employed the assistance of other people, notably Michael Clements, founder of the Half-Life 2 comics repository PHWOnline, and creator of SKETCH, another comic based on Half-Life 2. Clements aided him in enhancing the presentation of Concerned. Greg Galcik, creator of SpinnWebe, also assisted in site maintenance, and Livingston later offered him a "guest week special", in which Galcik wrote and published three issues for Concerned. A similar set of three issues have also been published by Joe Yuska, during a week when Livingston was unavailable.

As stated by Livingston in several interviews, his relation with Valve, the developer company of Half-Life 2, was a good one, the company being pleased to have a comic based on their game. According to Livingston, Valve also intended on collaborating with him to produce printed copies of Concerned. However, this was never finalized as the resolution of the comics was too low for printing.

Livingston has said that the comic will not continue through Half-Life 2: Episode One, the first of an episodic series following Half-Life 2, as the game "doesn't really lend itself to the type of comic to do".